American National Red Cross; Red Cross and Red Crescent
JOE FARRAR, twelve years old.
FLORENCE HOWE, eleven years old.
MARY BARTON, eleven years old.
REED WHITE, eleven years old.
BERTIE ENSWORTH, ten years old.
LLOYD BARTON, seven years old.
It could not fail to have been a satisfaction to me to know that I had
done my work as they would have "done it themselves."
As long as we remained on the river this family was occasionally visited
by our boat. On one occasion a strong flagstaff twenty feet in length
was taken and firmly set upon the bank near where they would place their
house. Its well-lettered cross board at the top showed "Little Six Red
Cross Landing," and this point has remained a landing on the Ohio River
probably unto this day.
During this trip on the upper Ohio, which was even yet scarcely safe for
running at night, we had, after a hard day's work, found a cove and tied
our boat for the night. It was a rather sequestered spot, and the
appearance of a full-size river steamer, halting for the night on one of
its banks, attracted the attention of the few people residing there, and
at dusk a body of five or six men came to the boat to ask if we were in
trouble that we stopped there, and if there were anything they could do
for us. We quieted their kindly apprehensions and invited them on board.
The lights revealed a condition of personal poverty which should have
more naturally asked help than offered it. On the entire trip with its
thousands of miles, among white and black, we had never seen such
evidences of destitution. They scarcely could have decently gone among
civilized people, and yet as they spoke, there was no lack of sense. On
the contrary, they seemed in many ways to be men of the world. Their
language, while provincial, had nothing uncommon in it, and altogether
they were a study to us. We gave them some supper, and while eating,
learned the facts of their lives.
Either by blood or marriage, they were all relatives, consisting of six
families, making in all about thirty people. They all lived
together--such living as it was--and there seemed to be among them a
perfectly good understanding. They had always lived on the river banks,
probably more on the river than off of it. They were not farmers, never
planted or raised anything, subsisting mainly upon fish and the floating
drift to be picked up. Thus, they clung to the river like the muskrat
and beaver, and were washed out with every flood. Sixteen of them at
that time were living under some slanting boards.
After supper our men quietly invited them to the clothing department on
the stern of the ship, and exchanged their garments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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